Ode To A Grecian Urn By John Keats Essay

The similarities between the poems lie in their abilities to utilize imagery as a means to enhance the concept of the fleeting nature that life ultimately has and to also help further elaborate the speaker’s opinion towards their own situation. In Keats’ poem, dark and imaginative images are used to help match with the speaker’s belief that both love and death arise from fate itself. Here, Keats describes the beauty and mystery of love with images of “shadows” and “huge cloudy symbols of a high romance” to illustrate his belief that love comes from fate, and that he is sad to miss out on such an opportunity when it comes time for his own death.

Life’s mysteries are best stated in writing. Some mysteries are revealed, while others remain unknown forever. John Keats, one of England’s greatest poets, published several poems, including one of his most famous ones in 1819, “Ode on A Grecian Urn” (Keats 247). Keats was a renowned poet during the British Romantic period. Romantic literature focused on beauty and emotions. So, what is the significance of the scenes depicted on the mysterious urn? Is the urn simply a masterpiece of art with emphasis only on physical beauty? In the poem, “Ode on A Grecian Urn”, John Keats creates mysterious scenes on a Greek urn to contrast between everlasting art and human life. Keats contrasts both worlds through the urn’s elaborate description, the theme of personal relationships, and the ultimate message of beauty, with significant relevance to modern times.

Keats uses the image on the urn to express desire that can never be realized. The urn depicts a scene of a man and a woman about to kiss, but this image is frozen in time. This

Conversely, Keats does not conclude with a positive image of love; the knight’s pain is shown when Keats metaphorically places him ‘on the cold hill’s side’ along with the many other ‘pale kings and princes

However, the impending death that creates the incapacity to write down thoughts does not detract from the complexity of the thoughts. On the contrary, Keats’ comparison of his imagination to harvestable grain shows confident self-recognition of his own ability, highlighting the awareness of “the poet’s own ripeness in his art” (Grosholz 604). This art “teems” in his brain and is “rich,” and these qualities compel him to pour out his feelings into this one sonnet, despite his belief that this will be the last sonnet he writes. However, his fervent but vain desire to express the entirety of his poetic notions “imparts to [him] the hunger, or poverty, necessary for production, but…also dwarfs whatever [he] has already written” (Hecht 116). Accordingly, by longing to write his unspoken wisdom, Keats rejects any greatness associated with his previous works. This untapped potential consequently creates a paradox for Keats as he is both the field of grain and its harvester (Saksono 97). Thus, he alone is capable of cultivating and sharing his work despite his waning health. The prospect of this work is still tantalizing to him, though, as Hecht states that “‘The high piled books, in charactry’ promise that if they could only be written, meaning would outlive the

Both men feel that time is escaping them. While keats is fearful that time is moving too quickly for him to accomplish anything, Longfellow fears he has wasted his time: “half of life is gone”. The difference is that Keats is hopeful that he has the chance to accomplish something. Keats begins each line with a dependent clause, leaving room for possibility, possibility that his life can become anything if he wills it. He also includes metaphors to represent the possibility of his success in his writing with “high-piled books”. This presence of hope is what differentiates Keats from Longfellow. In the middle of the of “When I Have Fears”, Keats has a change in tone which also illustrates his hopefulness. He admires the mystery and power of love with its “shadows” and “magic hand of chance”. His enchantment of the concept reiterates his youthfulness and ignorance to life. While Keats longs for love, Longfellow has “sorrow” from “care that almost killed” him. Longfellow was able to experience love in his past yet was unhappy with its outcome. Therefore, Keats is in desperation for love as a symbol of fulfillment, and Longfellow regrets that love has taken away his time ergo not having achieved his

Readers of Keats’s story begin to realize that the fear of a young death is a demon that haunts us all. This was Keats’s goal as a romantic writer: to connect with the reader, to portray his ideas in the form of art, and to make the reader see from his point of view. With his use of colorful figurative language, such as repetition, imagery, and personification, Keats accomplishes his goal. The reason that Keats is so successful in painting a clear picture is because he “uses his imagination to write” (King). By writing his poem in the form of a “Shakespearean sonnet consisting of three quatrains” (King), Keats, like any great artist, clearly states the point he is trying to make. Apprehension of a young demise is a plague that haunts us all. In “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to be,” Keats takes our hands and reassures us that we are not

The moments in our lives that we consider peaks of happiness can never be eternal. That is why our desires for permanence and change alternate dependent on our given state of mind. John Keats, a man who, upon experiencing a great deal in his short 25 years, realized through these painfully human experiences that beauty is an idea that exists in a state of infinity, however our enjoyment of this beauty is ever changing. Thus, we begin to contradict ourselves, and wish simultaneously for both the permanent beauty of an event or feeling–as well as the unreachable joy for more. Keats’ two poems, Ode to a Grecian Urn and Ode to a Nightingale discuss these opposing ideals, and build off of each other in a way that is comparable to a student educating

During the romanticism era, Line 1-8 talks about how Keats is afraid that he won’t be able to become a writer. The poem was written during Romanticism where a lung disease, tuberculosis was widespread over Europe. Even Keats mother died from this disease when Keats was a child. Because he grew up alone, he didn’t have anyone to tell about his feelings therefore he started writing poems to express his feelings. He was worried that he may die at a young age with tuberculosis before he could write down all the ideas in his head. Line 9-12 is about Keats fear that he will lose his beloved one. It is normal to lose your beloved ones during your life. However, Keats lost both of his parents when he was still young therefore he didn’t receive the love that he needed when he was young. Because of this, he was very desperate for a love which is another reason why he wrote this poem to show his passion for love. Background of the poet and the era are a significant context which contribute to my

When reaching the second part of the poems, the reader starts to see the differences between the poems. Keats starts to talk about the “Cloudy symbols and the “shadow”. It seems that Keats might believe that love is a predetermined life event, seeming as though he is disappointed that he might of missed out on an

John Keats was a well established English poet in the early 19th century. His work is greatly influenced by his family, studies, political views, and life experiences. Keats was born October 31st, 1795 in a stable to his devoted parents, Thomas and Frances Keats (15). Before Keats’s twentieth birthday he would experience many hardships from the passing of both of his parents as well as his grandmother. Thomas Keats died in 1804 after an accident occurred while riding his horse, leaving John Keats as the ‘man’ of the house at the young age of nine. Less than five years passed before Frances Keats fell ill and passed after contracting tuberculosis. At a young age Keats experienced great loss and suffering that would linger with him for the entirety

Keats composed the best of his poetry during the hardships of his sickness and his love for Brawne. It was considered an astonishing piece of work because of the technical parts of the piece, developing slowly into a molded ball of a perfect blend in all intellectual and emotional parts.

The twenty-four old romantic poet John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” written in the spring of 1819 was one of his last of six odes. That he ever wrote for he died of tuberculosis a year later. Although, his time as a poet was short he was an essential part of The Romantic period (1789-1832). His groundbreaking poetry created a paradigm shift in the way poetry was composed and comprehended. Indeed, the Romantic period provided a shift from reason to belief in the senses and intuition. “Keats’s poem is able to address some of the most common assumptions and valorizations in the study of Romantic poetry, such as the opposition between “organic culture” and the alienation of modernity”. (O’Rourke, 53) The irony of Keats’s Urn is he likens

John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is written through the power of eternity, beauty and truth regardless of existence, as Wordsworth showed likewise. Keats illustrated his poem through love in its sublime. For example, in the first stanza he says, “What wild ecstasy?” (Keats 930). If ecstasy is a huge feeling of

Keats, on the other hand, uses the “Ode on a Grecian Urn” to express his perspective on art by examining the characters on the urn from either an ideal or realistic perspective. In the beginning, Keats asks questions regarding the “mad pursuit” (9, p.1847) of the people on the Grecian urn. As the Grecian urn exists outside of time, Keats creates a paradox for the human figures on the urn because they do not confront aging but neither experience time; Keats then further discusses the paradox in the preceding stanzas of the poem. In the second and third stanza, Keats examines the picture of the piper playing to his lover “beneath the trees” (15, p.1847) and expresses that their love is “far above” (28, p.1848) all human passion. Even though